Somali Independence

In
1960, after several decades of colonial rule, Britain gave independence
to the British Somaliland, Italy gave independence to the Italian Somaliland,
and France gave independence to the French Somaliland. The British
and Italian Somaliland regions joined together to form the country of Somalia
while the French Somaliland became Djibouti (5).
The clans now had the responsibility of organizing a government for the
two regions uniting as Somalia. The new country implemented a system
of parliamentary democracy in which freedom of expression was a key element.
The government was to consist of a president as head of state and a Prime
Minister who had full executive powers. The Prime Minister would
answer to an elected National Assembly of 123 members representing the
two former colonies (6). The new government,
in
which Somali traditions were combined with western governmental practices,
offered political and legal equality to all Somalis,

regardless
of their clan, class, or profession (7). At the time of independence, the two former
colonies were still different institutionally, and the two systems were
gradually integrated over the next four years. The clans formed political
parties in order to compete for power in the new government. The
two major parties that formed were the Somali Youth League (SYL) and its
opposition party, the Greater Somali League (GSL). The SYL drew its
supporters from the Darod clan, while the GSL was supported by the Dir,
Hawiye, and Issaq clans (8).
In 1962, factions of both parties combined
to form a new party, the Somali National Congress (SNC). This party
had support in both the north (former British Somaliland), and the south
(former Italian Somaliland). This gave the new Somali state three
major political parties (9).

The country’s first post-independence
national elections took place in 1964. The SYL dominated the elections,
winning 69 ofthe 123 National Assembly seats. Within the following
year, 21 members of competing parties joined the SYL, raising their total
to 90 (10).
In 1967, Abdirashiid Ali Shermaarke was elected
as president. He nominated Muhammad Abraham Igaal, of the SYL, as
Prime Minister. The SYL had clearly become the dominant political
party of Somalia. Some people who were discontent with the results
of recent elections began to make charges of election fraud (11).
It was found that Prime Minister Igaal had
stolen over five million dollars from the national treasury in order to
buy votes. By 1969, the SYL had control of 120 of the 123 seats in
the National Assembly (12). Somalia,
just nine years after gaining independence from colonial powers, had become
a corrupt one-party state.